Despite recent attacks by the ruling party against the Chargé d’Affairs of the United States, official data from the Central Reserve Bank confirm that the United States is one of the country’s main trading partners.
Exports from El Salvador to the United States grew by as much as 55% between January and August 2021, Central Reserve Bank (BCR) President Douglas Rodriguez confirmed.
The head of the institution, during the presentation of the data, stressed that the Salvadoran economy is recovering after the serious decline in the gross domestic product that was recorded during 2020, as a result of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, economists have made clear that this is a “rebound effect” and not a rebound per se.
This economic growth is attributed, among other things, to the increase that occurred during 2021 in exports, where the United States was the country with the highest growth in purchases of Salvadoran products.
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However, the head of the BCR tried to focus more on exports to the countries of the Central American region, which together account for 44% of the total volume of exports, despite its growth in the year by 40% in relation to 2020, which makes it less than the growth of exports to the country North Amarica.
In total, sales abroad grew by 113.5% in the second quarter of the year, mainly due to the demand for Salvadoran products in the United States, which amounted to $1,760 million (40%) and in Central American countries it amounted to $1.937 million (44%) while in Europe was $148 million (3%) and the rest of the world was $514 million (12%). The highest growth of exports was to the United States
According to Rodriguez, the main products that El Salvador exported to these countries are T-shirts, which equate to $502 million in exports; jackets worth $278 million; Plastic products such as bottles and bottle caps worth $174 million; And other products, such as electronic chips, worth up to $159 million.
This data on the high growth of exports to the United States became known in a context in which a letter of attacks was made against the Chargé d’Affairs and the representative of that country in El Salvador, Jean Manes, who was pointed out by several government officials for an alleged “interference” in the country’s internal politics.
These accusations followed the conviction by Mance, on behalf of the United States government, of the latest actions issued by the Presidency, the Assembly and the Supreme Court, which include amending laws to dismiss judges from their positions and the decision of the Constitutional Chamber imposed by the ruling party on May 1, which gave the green light for re-election President Neb Bokel.
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These decisions, which are part of a “democratic decline,” according to Mance, “harm the bilateral relationship of the United States with El Salvador,” and that, beyond the diplomatic issue, extends to commercial and economic issues. The volume of exports the North American country buys as well as the large influx of family remittances that come from the millions of Salvadorans who reside in that country.
In fact, a day after the Chamber issued this decision, the representative of the Joe Biden government in the country confirmed that there will be immediate effects on El Salvador, especially in commercial matters, because “companies that were thinking of investing in El Salvador are now thinking about it two or three times.” Because they do not want to come to a country where, from day to day, they dismiss judges,” he said on that occasion. The diplomat added that “the United States is freezing its efforts to bring investment into the country,” which may be reflected in the economic data presented in the medium term.
